Europe betrays Ukraine’s ‘heavenly hundred’

The famed White Army General Anton Denikin led his troops into Kiev in 1919, during the Russian Civil war. In the following decades, living in exile, he published his memories of the White Army, recalling his disbelief at the number of Ukrainian forces he confronted in battle. His diaries and writing expound upon the difference between “Little Russia,” or Ukraine, and “Great Russia,” an approach that has made them a noted favorite of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Where did all these Ukrainians come from?” Denikin wrote.

His query is worth remembering now that the European Union seems to be asking the same incredulous question regarding the hundreds of thousands of people — refugees, migrants, protesters, and yes, Ukrainians — who have lost their lives trying to cross its borders over the past several years.

The magnitude of their desperation and depth of their belief in the European project has too often been greeted with ambivalent surprise.

The magnitude of their desperation and depth of their belief in the European project has too often been greeted with ambivalent surprise — not at the fact that the Europe those unfortunate thousands sought does not exist, but that they still thought it did.

It was exactly two years ago this Saturday that Berkut special police officers opened fire on protesters in Kiev’s Independence Square, in what became the bloodiest hour of the Euromaidan Revolution. Over a hundred peaceful protesters, now known as the “Heavenly Hundred,” were killed in battle at the heart of the city, the first casualties of what is now a two-year war for freedom from Russian meddling and for a European future.

They died wearing EU ribbons, hoping that one day their corrupt government might reform and Ukraine might be admitted into the ever closer union. Commemorating the one-year anniversary of the killings in Kiev last year, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko wisely tried to lower the nation’s expectations: “If we stop the war, everyone will see the changes of Ukraine in a few years.”

They died wearing EU ribbons, hoping that one day their corrupt government might reform and Ukraine might be admitted into the ever closer union.

Today, the war in the east smolders on, and the second anniversary of the killings comes during the most turbulent week in Ukrainian politics this year, one that provides a worrying glimpse into how little things have changed since the revolution forced out former President Viktor Yanukovych.

The parliament appears to still be governed by the whims of oligarchs, and the rampant corruption has even pushed a handful of Poroshenko’s reformers to resign their posts. The country has been teetering on the brink of financial collapse for over a year, even more so now that the IMF is threatening to pull the plug on $40 billion worth of aid.

But what is most remarkable, if heartbreaking, about all this is that it was only the news of the failed no-confidence vote in parliament that turned the world’s attention back to Ukraine, and only for a moment at that.

When the news coming out of Ukraine’s occupied eastern territories is more or less the same, day after day, one forgets that there was once life there.

“‘News’ is mostly a tool of forgetting,” the philosopher Zygmunt Bauman writes, “a way of crowding out yesterday’s headlines from the audience consciousness.” When the news coming out of Ukraine’s occupied eastern territories is more or less the same, day after day, one forgets that there was once life there.

The conflict in Syria has drawn Russia back in from the cold, affording the Kremlin time to try and regroup economically and militarily. OSCE observers have “circumstantial evidence” that the separatist republics are re-arming, and it goes without saying that the Minsk accords have yet to be fully implemented — separatist and Ukrainian forces have recently been facing off with heavy weaponry banned under the agreements. Europe should punish Ukraine for the still rampant corruption in its halls of government, but it must not do so in the corridors of war.

The two-year conflict has internally displaced well over 1 million people and created over 700,000 refugees. For them, and for the thousands who have lost family members in the conflict, the promise of Europe has already fallen apart. They were motivated to fight for their country by many of the same reasons that lead thousands of migrants to risk their lives every day. If they are forgotten and they, in turn, forget Europe, it will make for a sinister situation indeed.

Linda Kinstler is a contributing writer at POLITICO.

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Victor

Sorry Linda, but what has happened is that the EU has realized, that Ukraine is solidly in Russia’s sphere of interest, and we have no reason to be there
The “heavenly hundred” arent worth the life of a single EU soldier. Or a single Eurocent…

Posted on 2/20/16 | 1:05 PM CEST

Reality Check

‘Heavenly Hundred’? Give it a rest. Too much evidence that Right Sector fascists firing from the Hotel Ukraina were the ones sacrificing these hundred to their false gods. A false flag operation if there ever was one. The author of this piece should do some honest research.

Posted on 2/20/16 | 7:11 PM CEST

Reality Check

And while we’re on the subject, WHO…Ms. Kinstler, isn’t implementing Minsk II? Too afraid to state the facts, or is that just another of… oh, so many inconvenient ‘irrelevancies’ best swept under the rug?

Posted on 2/20/16 | 7:15 PM CEST

Klaus Fröst

Solution dissolves Ukraine to pre-1917 days. The east to Russia and West divided between Poland, Hungary and Romania. The problem will go away.
Cheers

Posted on 2/20/16 | 7:18 PM CEST

Tribunus Plebis

I’m afraid the EU doesn’t know, and doesn’t care, about the “Heavenly Hundred”, or the situation in the Mediterranean… or whatever situation really important for the future of our societies. There are too many smoke screens, fake mirrors, and corrupt, illiterate, and incompetent media and politicians.

I hope we’ll be able someday to assess the degree of the penetration of the Kremlin in the top positions of the German Government.

Posted on 2/20/16 | 9:30 PM CEST

anna

Linda, your half-truths in fact help perpetuate the crisis and sufferings in Ukraine. Each journalist has to take personal responsibility for what is going on in places they report on. What LInda does not say is that Ukraine has been and continues to be a divided country, with one part deeply enmeshed with Russia and unwilling to let go of its identity, history and mentality. By giving a falsely uni-colored portrayal, Linda distorts the truth and helps perpetuate the crisis that goes against the interests of Ukrainian people. I guess, Linda just does not care about these people.

Posted on 2/20/16 | 11:35 PM CEST

Lev Havryliv

Two years ago hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians protested against their corrupt, nepotistic, brutal dictator and Putin puppet Yanukovich. Over a hundred protestors were killed.

Yanukovich is now in Russia under Putin’s protection and Russia is continuing to conduct a war against Ukraine on many fronts. Militarily, economically, diplomatically and by a mendacious propaganda war.

Ukrainians want to belong to a society based on European values of democracy, press freedom, accountability in government, freedom from corruption. No one wants a return to Russian-style autocracy.

Europe can help by holding a united front against Russian aggression and assisting Ukraine in its transition to its rightful place in Europe.

Posted on 2/21/16 | 2:24 AM CEST

Sandy miller

This article made me weep. It feels like I’m losing my parents soul. i replaced them in my heart with Ukraine. These are my beloved roots. I was born without a country and had hoped and prayed that this time I could get it back. All my ancestors ashes blow in the winds of Ukraine. Their blood spilled all over the Ukrainian soil to win her freedom. What can I tell my children and my grand children about who they are.?

Posted on 2/21/16 | 6:08 AM CEST

Sandy miller

After reading so many putler trolls on this site I’m even more sickened by these evil creatures who lack stmpathy for Ukrainians and there brutal history. I never realized there was evil in this world until now.

Posted on 2/21/16 | 6:15 AM CEST

Markus867

I don’t think Europe has forgotten Ukraine – I am pretty sure it is much more a case of “the EU is turning its back on a corrupt and failing state” because the werstern politicians have realised that no matter what they do and how many money they sink in Kiev, nothing wil change!
Europe should stop all involvement immediately – the Ukraine and the other former republics of the USSR are Russia’s backyard. We have – apart from trade – no business there! Europe should stop following the bloody US from one desaster to the next … the whole misery started with US trying to “occupy” Georgia. The way Russia reacted was 100% correct and since then the US behave like a sulky teenager because they didn’t get their way. Screw them!
I am also 100% convinced that the US did finance and in part organize the whole Euro-Maidan folly … just one country in chaos – look at Afghanistan, Syria, Irak, Lybia to name only a few recent examples!

Solon

Pls. dont be a Liar , . ….It was exactly two years ago this Saturday that Berkut special police officers opened fire on protesters in Kiev’s Independence Square, …. ????????
Anybody can find facts on the Internet, that Berkut had NO GUNS and boys from Berkud were burned by Molotov cocktails throwing from Right sektor that love Bandera.

Posted on 2/21/16 | 8:02 PM CEST

Marcel

No one here wants topay for Ukrainian debt or admit more low wage workers from the East undercutting oue salaries here. Ukraine in EU, only if we can get out first.

Posted on 2/22/16 | 9:49 AM CEST

Troll

Sounds like this thread is filled with Russian trolls who can’t accept the fact that their country invaded Crimea and Donbass and threw all of Ukraine into chaos. Any person who was actually in Donetsk in May, 2014 will remember the pro-Ukrainian demonstrations attended by thousands of people from the Donbass region, and anyone who was there will remember who attacked who first at those demonstrations.

The idea that a majority of people in Donbass wanted to separate from Ukraine is a big, fat, stupid LIE, and if you believe that lie, you are probably a big, fat, stupid Russian TROLL.

Posted on 2/22/16 | 10:06 AM CEST

Marcel

Look, a NATO/EU troll, and with contempt for democracy, what a surprise.

I don’t have to like Putin in order to hate the pro fascist government in Kiev tolerating neo nazist movements like Azov, Right Sektor and the Bandera-ites.

Posted on 2/22/16 | 2:28 PM CEST

Hugo de Geus

“hundreds of thousands of people — refugees, migrants, protesters, and yes, Ukrainians — who have lost their lives trying to cross its borders over the past several years.” I stopped reading here, this statement is blatently untrue. Hundreds of thousands? A couple of thousands yes, but not even close to tenthousand in total. Still a tragedy of course but inflating the figure as the author just did is laughable.